The Navy recently found flaws in the hub-and-blade assembly of the propeller systems of two other destroyers and decided that its 12 newest destroyers -- those that have joined the fleet since 2000 -- needed propeller-system fixes.

That included the Chafee, commissioned just more than two weeks ago, on Oct. 18, near Newport, R.I.

It was unclear Friday how many of the destroyers have gotten the needed fixes. It was also unclear whether the problem is extensive enough to affect the destroyers' speed and agility -- or whether war fighting is compromised because of the problem.

The Arleigh Burke destroyers are a class of 40 ships that began with the USS Arleigh Burke, commissioned in 1991. Fast in the water, employing an advanced electronic warfare system called Aegis and carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles, the ships are an important part of the Navy's 294-ship battle fleet.

Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. -- now a division of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems -- made about half the Arleigh Burke-class ships in the fleet. Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, a division of General Dynamics, built the other half.

Of the 12 destroyers that needed -- or will need -- the propeller-system fixes, Ingalls and Bath each built six.

Because of the Navy's practice of spreading shipbuilding among various companies, Northrop Grumman Newport News -- which builds and fixes aircraft carriers and submarines -- isn't involved with fixing Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

The problem with the propeller originated with parts provided to the shipbuilders, Copeland said. She couldn't immediately identify the company that provided the parts. She also could not immediately give more details of the propeller problem.

It was unclear how much the fix will cost. Copeland said the cost of the repair would be borne by the vendor who made the propeller system, but she didn't have a price tag. Officials from Bath Iron Works and Northrop's Ingalls division also declined to comment on the cost of the repairs.

Four of the 12 ships that required the upgrades are based in Norfolk: the USS Oscar Austin, USS Winston Churchill, USS Bulkeley and USS Mason. But Copeland couldn't immediately say when the ships aside from the Chafee would be fixed or whether any had been repaired.

Bath Iron Works, which built the Chafee, recently called Norfolk Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. -- also known as Norshipco -- to see whether the yard had available dry-dock space to do the propeller fix.

"We had some space, so we're doing it for them," explained Jacqueline Kreisler, a spokeswoman for U.S. Marine Repair, Norshipco's parent company.

Neither Kreisler nor Bath officials would say when Bath called Norshipco -- whether the work was scheduled before the Chafee left Newport or whether the decision occurred after the ship was en route to Hawaii.

A low-ranking officer stationed on the Chafee said the problem with the ship's propulsion system wasn't noticeable to him while the ship was underway.

The Chafee is named after the late John H. Chafee, a U.S. Marine, World War II and Korean War veteran, Navy secretary, and a moderate Republican governor and longtime U.S. senator from Rhode Island.

It left Newport at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 20.

It arrived at Norshipco, which operates a 900-employee shipyard on the Elizabeth River, on Oct. 25 for the 10-day repair job.

About 20 Norshipco employees are working on the project, Kreisler said.

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers -- up to 510 feet long and displacing up to 9,200 tons -- carry a crew of more than 300 and are powered by four General Electric LM 2500-30 gas turbines, the Navy's Web site reads.

The propeller system has two shafts and generates about 100,000 horsepower, 314 times as many horses as a 318-horsepower car.

The five-bladed controllable-pitch propellers are 17 feet in diameter, outboard-rotating and hydraulic, an article in a trade publication, Hydraulics and Pneumatics, reported in 1989.

Ingalls' 19th Arleigh Burke-class ship, the USS Mustin, was commissioned in July, three months before the Chafee.

Its 20th, the Pinckney, will be commissioned in May.

Ingalls is building -- or under contract to build -- five more ships of the class, said Bill Glenn, a spokesman with Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems division.